Florence Travel & Food Guide

Compact enough to cross on foot, Florence packs more art per square mile than almost anywhere on earth. The cradle of the Renaissance is also a serious food town, where the cooking stays proudly rustic — built on good bread, good oil, and the produce of the Tuscan countryside.

What the Food Is Known For

Tuscan cuisine is the opposite of fussy: simple, generous, and ingredient-driven, with bread and olive oil at its center. Dishes that define the city:

• Bistecca alla Fiorentina — a thick, char-grilled T-bone steak
• Ribollita — a hearty bread-and-vegetable soup
• Lampredotto — the local tripe sandwich sold from street carts
• Pappa al pomodoro — a thick tomato-and-bread stew

Where and When to Eat

• Oltrarno — the "other side" of the river, full of artisan workshops, wine bars, and trattorias loved by locals.
• Mercato Centrale — a grand covered market with stalls below and a buzzing food hall above.
• Santa Croce — historic streets dotted with classic family-run osterias.

Eat like a Florentine: a standing espresso and pastry for breakfast, a sandwich or market plate at lunch, and a long, late dinner with Tuscan wine. Stop into a wine bar for a glass and a board of cured meats in the late afternoon. Smaller trattorias often hand you a handwritten menu in Italian only, so photographing it to translate makes choosing between the daily dishes much easier.

When to go

April to early June and September to October are the best months — warm, clear, and with the Tuscan countryside at its most photogenic. July and August are hot and extremely crowded, and the city centre can feel like a queue with buildings around it. Winter is the local's season: cold, quiet, cheap, and the only time you can walk into the Uffizi without a fight. Whatever the month, book the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Duomo dome climb online with a time slot; walk-up entry costs hours you do not have.

Getting around

Florence is small enough that walking is the answer to almost every question — the historic centre crosses in about twenty-five minutes and most of it is pedestrianised or restricted to residents' traffic. There is a tram to the airport and buses to the hills, but you will rarely need either. The train station, Santa Maria Novella, puts Pisa, Siena, Lucca and Bologna within an hour or so, which makes Florence an unusually good base. Cobbles and worn stone mean flat shoes with grip.

What it costs

Florence is priced for visitors in the centre and priced normally two streets off it. Lunch is where the value is: a lampredotto sandwich from a cart, a plate at the Mercato Centrale, or a fixed-price trattoria lunch all cost a fraction of dinner. A coperto per person is standard and printed on the menu, and no tip is expected beyond rounding up. Note that bistecca alla fiorentina is priced by weight, sold by the kilo and meant to be shared — check what the piece will weigh before you agree.